No science fiction filmmaker I know has given us scenes as otherworldly as these earthbound sequences. No space travels or alien landscapes have been haunted with spiritual darkness like this beast of a ship blasting through a turbulent night off New England's coast. At times, the reeling nets, the rattling chains, the grinding gears, the straining engines make this boat into a living thing, a monster ten times as fearsome as Godzilla. But this is a documentary, and the second from filmmakers Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel (Sweetgrass) to focus on the realities of hard work, the Herculean tasks of human beings as they battle against — and dance with — the immeasurable powers of nature.

The truths captured here are stranger, far more disturbing, and so much more violent than fiction.

When I staggered out of the screening, dizzy from the 87 minutes of chaos on the high seas, I sat down and felt like Roy Batty at the end of Blade Runner, exhausted and aching and wide-eyed with the aftershocks of unforgettable visions: "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe."